Sunday, October 25, 2009

Ippudo's Ramen

Short note: I did one of the stupidest thing ever today. I was out for some shopping and when I was in the town already, ready to make the first purchase of the day, I realised that I left my wallet in my room. Cycling all the way back to my hostel is not an option because it is more than ten kilometers one way. I was like wtf to myself a million times but luckily, I brought my bank book out with me today. So, the bank book saved my day haha.

The busiest crossroad in Japan, located just next to the Shibuya Station.

After a fully packed firstday touring around Tokyo, we had our own plans on the next day. I attended the Merdeka & Raya celebration at the Embassy of Malaysia in Shibuya, Tokyo; while WinD had to attend to his part-time job. I had blogged on the event at the embassy here, so you can have a look if you are interested.

After spending more time than I had planned at the embassy, I went to look for some shops to charge my phone because the battery had totally died. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to make arrangements for our dinner that night. It could have been avoided if I have checked on the battery level of the phone the previous night. Served me right for being over-confident haha.

Walking through the streets in Shibuya in search for something.

Guess what is this box for? Collection bin for used and unwanted mobile phones.

Found the thing I was looking for.

I came to this phone shop and told the guy that I wanted to charge my phone. He showed me the way and it cost ￥100to charge my phone for twenty minutes. It is neither cheap or too pricey, but certainly it is very convenient especially when we are in an emergency situation. I am unsure if this is possible in Malaysia, but this is the first time I saw this in Japan.

It is either I am too jakun, or I am living in an ulu area all this while haha.

Ippudo, which serves ramen.

We arrived at Chiba Station almost at the same time and WinD took me to a ramen restaurant, just like what he told me before I got down to Tokyo. Both of us shares a special liking for ramen, and I was curious to see how good the ramen would be. Ippudo is located within walking distance from Chiba Station.

Unlike other ramen restaurant, there are two kinds of side dishes where we get to take for free - some green vegetables (which looked like kacang botol) and bean sprouts marinated in chilly powder and perhaps some vinegar. It doesn't look as appetising but WinD insisted me to try it.

I tried taking a bite and the next thing I knew was I asked for refill no fewer than two times haha.

I am not sure what secret spices they added into these, but they are really nice.

The rest of the ingredients to be added into the ramen.

The workers use a weighing machine to measure the weight of the noodles for each bowls.

It has been some time since I had gyoza, so we ordered a plate of gyoza as well. The gyoza here are comparatively smaller than other places, just like Hakata's style. When we took a bite on the gyoza, we could feel the juicy fillings melting inside our mouth. The skin was crispy, but the minced meat inside were as soft as cotton haha. Even thinking about it makes me hungry now lol.

The name itself - hitokuchi gyoza (一口餃子) suggests that we can eat each piece of the gyoza with just one mouthful.

博多一口餃子 (Hakata hitokuchi gyoza) - ￥420.

We ordered the two most popular ramen from that restaurant - Akamarukasaneaji and Shiromarumotoaji.

The former uses pork bone as the main ingredient for its soup. Umamidama is added as the topping to enhance its taste and balm is added to make it the signature menu of this restaurant. As for the latter, the fine noodle used distinguishes itself from the other kinds of ramen. As the taste of the ramen is the top priority of Ippudo, they try to make sure that the fine noodles are not over boiled. The soup made of pork bone mixed with the chewy fine noodles, making it another main menu of this restaurant (modified from here).

赤丸かさね味 (Akamarukasaneaji) - ￥850.

白丸元味 (Shiromarumotoaji) - ￥750.

One thing which I like about Japan is no matter where you go (excluding those high class restaurants of course), the price of the food hardly differ a lot. For someone who loves ramen a lot, I will certainly try to make another trip to this restaurant to have their ramen.

I think the first meal I will have when I pay a visit to Chiba the next time will be Ippudo's ramen lol.

The former uses pork bone as the main ingredient for its soup. Umamidama is added as the topping to enhance its taste and balm is added to make it the signature menu of this restaurant. As for the latter, the fine noodle used distinguishes itself from the other kinds of ramen. As the taste of the ramen is the top priority of Ippudo, they try to make sure that the fine noodles are not over boiled. The soup made of pork bone mixed with the chewy fine noodles, making it another main menu of this restaurant.

you talked like you are the chef, not the customer =_=

and malaysia got free phone charging service. Just walk in to a handphone shop and they can charge it FOC.